Blockchain Guide for Law Enforcement

Last Updated: August 16, 2017

Blockchain users don’t make transaction requests to us instead, they transact themselves, directly with a virtual currency network.

Check out our open-source code on GitHub.

Blockchain’s wallet is essentially a backup service, like Dropbox or Amazon Cloud, except much more limited.

We can only back up one kind of file – an encrypted wallet.

Blockchain is not a financial intermediary. This is different than how virtual currency exchanges operate. We never know any of our users’ private keys.

We don’t take control of or transmit our users’ virtual currency. Blockchain is noncustodial. Blockchain users can store and spend the same virtual currencies, in as many other industry-standard software wallets as they like... at the same time as they are stored in a Blockchain wallet.

Blockchain can’t:

Spend virtual currency on a user’s behalf (or against the user’s wishes).

Freeze or forfeit virtual currency on law enforcement’s behalf.

Determine the balance of wallets.

Blockchain does not know its users’:

Wallet balances

Verified legal names

Mailing addresses

Social security or national ID numbers

Here's what client-side banking looks like:

User downloads wallet software & encrypted backup from Blockchain

Wallet & keys are decrypted in the user’s browser using their password

Users send & receive virtual currency using the wallet software as they please

Wallet is re-encrypted in the user’s browser & backed up to Blockchain for future use.